Forgotten
By: Phoenix Dayze
(Cloud/Zack)
PG

Disclaimer: Not mine. None of it. Well, maybe the concept of the fic…

Summary: Cloud takes a journey to a well-known hilltop…

Death, it seemed, was all there was to life. Cloud stared dejectedly down at the fateful patch of dirt. In his minds eye he could still see the staining red, still hear the echoing shots, still feel the treasured life ebbing away. Some things you remembered, no matter what. Cloud wished that wasn't so. He'd give anything to forget, and that only made him hate himself more.

It wasn't fair to Zack. It was wrong to wish him forgotten. But Zack was dead now. And Cloud was haunted by his passing. The muted, gasping breaths of fatal pain. The terrible dimming blue of his eyes. The crushing emptiness that remained. No one should have to bear such scars. No one should have to remember. Not even he deserved that.

He thrust Zack's sword deep into the hilltop, all his anger and sorrow channeled into a single movement. He knelt down before it, silence his only prayer. After a moment, he reached down and scooped up a handful of sand, sifting it through his fingers. "Zack," He said slowly. "I know you're out there somewhere." He swallowed painfully. "And I know you died for me- because of me. Everything about me- who I am, the fact that I'm alive- it's all because of you." A tear fell to the earth, anointing it with his pain. "And I still love you!" His voice broke as the dam finally broke. His sorrow, his anger, his profound loss, rained down on the precious phantom grave. His fingers dug into the dirt as the aching sobs tore from deep within his soul.

When his cries finally tapered off, he ran his hand lovingly over the ground. His voice was raw and sounded incredibly faraway. "I can't do this anymore, Zack." He whispered. "I can't go on living with your ghost." He closed his eyes, breathing. "So I'm going to forget you, Zack. I'm going to bury you so deep inside myself that everything will disappear. All the love. And all the pain." He looked up to the sky. "Please, Zack. If you love me… help me to forget."

A shredding pain tore through him. Cloud felt as if his heart were being ripped from his body. And it was. A vicious, regretful scream echoed over the hillside and Cloud collapsed into the dirt.

When Cloud rose back to his feet, a peaceful air descended over the tortured features, and the black burden seemed to dissipate. He left without a backwards glance.

The End.